A flatbed printer assembly is known in the art. Such a known printer assembly comprises a medium support table on which a recording medium may be arranged. Such a print assembly is particular advantageous for printing on large rigid media. Such rigid media are, for example, used in the graphics arts for printing signs and posters.
A gantry is provided such that the gantry is moveable over the medium support table and a carriage is moveably supported by the gantry such that the carriage is moveable over the medium support table in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the gantry. By suitably controlling a movement of the gantry and the carriage, a print unit such as an inkjet print head is enabled to position image dots of a recording substance such as ink on the recording medium corresponding to an image to be printed.
In the known flatbed printer assembly, a single carriage is provided. All printing units, e.g. four inkjet print heads for printing ink of four process colors (cyan, magenta, yellow and black, also commonly referred to as CMYK), are arranged on the single carriage.
However, for more sophisticated applications such as common applications in the graphic arts, more colors and special recording substances (varnish, metallic inks, etc.) may be needed. In such case, more print units are required. Increasing the number of print units increases the weight of the carriage and the gantry. As a consequence, high demands are put on the drive units, driving the movement of the carriage and/or the gantry. Moreover, accurately positioning while maintaining (or preferably increasing) a print speed becomes virtually impossible or at least commercially unattractive due to relatively high costs.
Still, it is desirable to have a flatbed printer assembly that is enabled and configured to print on rigid media using a large variety of recording substances.